Get your kicks your own way

You may feel free to scoff today. You are more than likely to disagree with my thrill for today. I confess that it is a strange way in which to obtain a thrill and I may well require examination of my head.

Brace yourselves, fibre lovers: this girl is planning a yarn diet.

Nothing unusual about that, you might well say. Lots of people have to do that from time to time.

Sure they do. But for three years?

Sorry, did you choke on your coffee there? Do you feel faint? In need of a sit down? Let me give you time to recover while I explain.

I want a Schacht Matchless. I have admired them since I first saw one. Very recently this admiration from afar has turned into a proper crush — and I now have a mind to manipulate one Matchless into a long term stable relationship with myself.

How do I achieve my plans? I have no job, no income — I don’t claim any benefits. All I have is the bit of pocket money that I negotiated with Mr L in order to retain a small amount of independence. I have Â£25 a month to play with.

Now, I confess that I overspend this and that my bank account has been in the red almost permanently since I took up the knitting needles again. The good news is that in a couple of days, I shall be back in the black.

While I was in the shower this morning I did some thinking. The Schacht was Â£750 when I first saw it. Now it is Â£780. If I spend nothing on myself and also save anything extra that comes my way, I could have a Schacht in 30 months’ time. Of course, the price will go up again in that time… so to be safe, I am suggesting three years of saving my pocket money.

THREE YEARS of not buying yarn. No pattern downloads that are not free. No new needles. THREE YEARS of making do.

Sobering, is it not?

So why am I telling you this under the guise of a Thursday Thrill? Because I find the idea both liberating and exhilarating. It is invigorating to consider the implications and benefits, and to understand that for the first time since I left the workplace I am taking control of my own life and working for something that I want for myself.

The idea is very new, soÂ the benefits are not yet fully thought out but here are a few that suggest themselves to me so far:

I shall be forced to use up my stash, thus reducing guilt levels and also increasing space in the workroom

It is an opportunity to check through all those paid patterns that have not been knitted up yet and ensure that I get my money’s worth

Finally I shall have the necessary kick in the pants to get to grips with spinning raw fleece into yarn

And also put to use those dyes that I bought and have not yet experimented with — and gain a new skill

I might even get to use up the fibre stash as well as the yarn stash

There will be some impetus to speed up the savings by making more effort to take on knitting commissions

As I shall be spinning more frequently, in order to produce my own yarn. I’ll be a much better spinner and far more worthy of the Schacht when I get it.

I might even be good enough before long to sell my yarns and thereby add to the pot.

I hope to break the purchasing habit and go 100% “home grown” — even making my own sock yarn! and…

…that supports my desire to become more of a technical spinner and able to take control sufficiently to spin yarns correctly for specific knitting projects.

Overall, the effect will be to make me more active in doing more and less passive in receiving the fruits of others’Â labours. I shall gain skills and hone existing ones.

I sold some stash recently. I’ve started my savings with the proceeds…

It's a start

Really, I think the greatest benefit is in the feeling of taking control and not relying on the breadwinner.

Before I can make a proper beginning to this project, I shall have to pay for my recent Ashford order — sliver to complete the yarn for my Pamuya shawl, and some extra stick shuttles for my Knitter’s Loom. Nothing too extravagent 🙂

The only reason that I am putting this in the blog is that it forces me to commit to the idea. If I didn’t make this public, I could easily back out. This means, dear Blog, that you are in charge of my behaviour and must scold thoroughly if I spend.

It’s going to make Show and Tell Tuesdays a bit dull, isn’t it? 🙂 We are saved for next week as a parcel just arrived (from P2tog) — one of my very last (I still have Alice to look forward to, though!). Also in the post today, some washing nets that I sent for in case I want to get into washing my fleece before spinning.Â I shall put those to use immediately as I have some goat hair to render less pungent before blending it with some sheepy stuff.

By the way, whilst on matters Spinning: I feel it necessary to hang my head in shame. The plan to spin a whole fleece this week? It’s Thursday already, Mr L is home on Saturday, and I haven’t even started on it yet.

I am now going to….no, not get the fleece out… going to pin out a shawl on the blocking mat. Then I believe that I have some webmastery to effect. Will I ever become a real spinner? I begin to doubt it!

I have just decided I want one of these too – I have a Majacraft Rose, so do I keep my Rose & buy a Matchless or sell the Rose (with extra bobbins, the jumbo e-flyer, 3 jumbo bobbins, a jumbo lazy kate & bobbin holder) to pay for the Matchless